Little Talks
by HatterLifeStyle
Summary: "Honestly, Break. You act as if you had no idea how much I cared for you as a child." He knows that there is a second, unsaid part to her statement. The one that says how much more she cares for him now as an adult.


He wasn't a man who cried often.

In fact since he had reached adulthood he couldn't actually remember crying once. Even after returning to the manor where he found his lord and master discarded in a gory scene with blood splattered all around him and turning young lady Sinclair's already tear stained face away from the scene he hadn't cried. Nor did he cry once the whole household had been placed in their coffins and lined up in the hall of the house. Not even the sight of his master's grave had brought him to tears.

None of the things he had gone through or done had truly managed to drive him to a state where tears were his reaction. That's why a small part of him found it hilarious when his tears were finally triggered by the sound of a piano piece being played from the parlor of the Rainsworth manor. He knew that one of lady Shelly's favorite pastimes was to play the piano and she had apparently taken it upon herself to teach her daughter to play. They had been in the middle of their lesson when he had walked in to return a book that Lady Sharon had practically ordered he read so that they could discuss it during the tea party later that afternoon that she insisted he attend. Deciding to humor the little mistress he had dutifully read the book, a simple story of princesses, dragons and knights. Very much to the little mistress's liking as far as he could tell.

He opened the door to the parlor. Lady Sharon was sitting next to her mother on the piano stool squinting as she tried to decipher the sheets that were spread out in front of her. At the sound of the door they both diverted their attention from the piano to see who it was. He was once again struck by the stunning similarity between mother and child.

"Xerxes-nii!" she beamed at him as soon as she saw him come in. He had already grown at least vaguely accustomed to the young Rainsworth's name for him and therefor no longer felt quite as uncomfortable whenever he was addressed as such.

"Pardon me for interrupting, Lady Sharon. I wished simply to return your book." he said revealing the little book that had been partially hidden until then.

"Xerxs-nii, listen to the song mummy taught me! It's beautiful!" she insisted.

"I'd be honored to, my lady." he said and, playing the part of the knight he knew she loved to see, he made a slight bow. She gestured for him to come closer and he cautiously brought himself beside the piano. Lady Sharon made a show of stretching and warming her hands up and ever so cautiously placed them on the keys, looking the part of the concert pianist, the slight twitch in her fingers was the only indication that she was actually nervous at showing him her piano skills. She let out a deep breath and began.

It was a simple enough melody, perfect for a young child who had just begun. The simplicity didn't make it any less fulfilling when it had finally been played through correctly and lady Sharon seemed immensely pleased with her progress. From the proud look on her face Xerxes imagined that Lady Shelly shared the sentiment. But...

The melody seemed almost eerily familiar.

_"Kevin, did you hear? I finally finished learning the song!"_

For the briefest moment his remaining eye snapped open. He knew he had heard the song before, the youngest daughter of the Sinclair household had been particularly fond of it. He watched his new mistress play it with unwavering pride and felt his throat grow tense as the song progressed. Lady Shelly had, as usual, managed to pick up his emotions in the atmosphere that surrounded them. Her piercing gaze bore into him and he felt his eye grow warm.

"Xerxes-nii, did you like it?" Sharon asked. She was obviously extremely pleased with how she had managed and was peering up at him curiously. He forced himself to answer her so as not to leave her hanging.

"It was lovely, lady Sharon." He swallowed and smiled shakily. "I hope you'll allow me to hear it again sometime." he murmured. She beamed at him and he was glad that he had gone through the trouble of staying at least to please the little mistress. He placed his hand on her head affectionately for a moment and then left the parlor.

That was why he was now sitting in his room facing away from the door in case one of the more foolhardy servants came in. He was glad that at the very least he wasn't sobbing like a child, merely a few stray tears had escaped from him and slid down the side of his face silently and he couldn't be bothered to try and stop them even as he resented their mere existence.

He heard the door open and close and he automatically tensed. He refused to let himself be caught in the middle of such a pathetic display. However, the footsteps that followed into the room were light and he immediately realized that it was Lady Sharon that had decided to grace him with her presence. He refused to turn around anyway. He felt the mattress shift as Sharon's newly added weight joined his on the bed and immediately felt two small arms wrap around his waist from behind. Her strange attitude caught his attention, she was quite fond of him, he knew, but Sharon usually kept a certain amount of distance from him. It was like she sensed that he had barriers around him that it was best not to try and breach. Her interactions with him were always limited to girlish smiles and giggles and the occasional short tug on his hand or clothes. He took a fraction of a second to compose his voice as best he could and finally spoke up.

"To what do I owe this honor, Ojou-sama?" Sharon's grip on his chest tightened but he still refused to face her.

"Mummy said you were not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening." she began, proving to him yet again that Shelly Rainsworth was quite possibly the most observant woman he had ever met.

"It's not like you to disobey your mother, Ojou-sama. Is everything alright?" he asked, his back still to her as she continued hugging him tightly. He could feel the light puffs of her breath on his back. The little girl didn't say anything for a while and Break felt himself tense slightly.

"I'm-" the girl began as she retracted her arms from the makeshift embrace she had initiated. "I'm not quite sure." she continued. She put her arms around him once again, this time around his shoulders and slowly moved her hands up. He grew tenser as he felt her right hand move closer and closer to moisture on his right cheek. He was pretty sure he stopped breathing when he felt the tip of her fingers brush against the trails that had been left by his tears. He felt her bristle slightly but she didn't stop moving. Her left hand came to a halt just past his cheekbone and her right hand continued until it brushed ever so slightly over his eyelashes.

He moved then, quickly turning to face her and taking a hold of both of her hands, each completely engulfed in his. It was an exaggerated reaction to a non-existent threat. He didn't know what exactly had made him feel so cornered, but he had felt trapped for a moment as he had felt Sharon slowly put the puzzle pieces together. Sharon seemed surprised by his reaction but there was no fear evident in her eyes.

They stared at each other for a while, Break slowly lowering the girl's hands and finding that she refused to let his hands go so easily. However, she eventually broke their eye contact first and let go of his hands. She smiled at him, every bit as brightly as she always did.

"You promised you'd come have tea with me today, Xerxes-nii. You're not going to break that promise, are you?" Break stared at his little mistress as she kept smiling up at him.

This girl was every bit as clever as her mother was. He smiled ever so slightly at her as she took his hand once more and dragged him out of his room to the small balcony where she liked to have her tea parties with him and where he was eventually talked into regaling her with stories of strong heroes and noble deeds as if to contrast with his previous somber thoughts.

"Ojou-sama." he calls out to the young woman that stands across from him in the room, looking out onto that very same balcony.

"Yes, Break?" she answers softly. It's a cold winter evening and the sun had set just as they were finishing their tea. Break leans back in his chair, pulls out a lollipop and starts toying with the protective wrapper he has yet to remove.

"Do you remember that day you finally learned to play that first melody on the piano?" She had just been perusing the books that she kept on her shelf, hoping to find something with which to entertain herself for a few hours when he spoke his question. He knows that she is already fully aware of moment in question but he gives her a moment to refresh her memory as he slips the wrapper off the colorful sweet and continues analyzing it critically. She eventually hums an answer and continues scanning the shelves although she seems to move in a much more half-hazard way.

"Do you remember when you went to my room afterwards?" he asks as he gives the sweet an experimental lick before slipping it into his mouth and crushing it between his teeth. The sweet flavor invades his mouths as the muted crunching washes over the room. When he finally turns his attention to her once again she has already chosen a book. She walks over to him and places it on the table beside him but before he can identify it his attention slips back to her face. She is standing in front of him and she smiles fondly at him as her soft voice breaks through the room.

"Of course I remember." she whispers. He slips the lollipop stick out of his mouth and it drops to the floor as she continues in the same soft tone of voice. "That was the first time I ever felt sure that you'd get better."

He frowns ever so slightly, he doesn't quite understand her reasoning. Before he can bring himself to ask her to explain she is already speaking again.

"When you had just gotten here you were always bleeding from your left eye. You were angry and vicious and you hated any attention you received. In my head, when you were bleeding like that it was like you were crying tears of blood." she trails off as she brings her hand up and slides a single delicate finger down his left cheek. He tenses up, they are usually so careful to limit these contacts, to keep them at a bare minimum to try and forestall something they knows is building up between them even though it shouldn't. But the touch is as brief as it is gentle and she has already put a more appropriate distance between them as she slips out of her recollections.

"For some reason I had gotten it into my head that when you finally cried normal tears like everyone else you'd start to really get better, but you never did. You simply breezed through your chores and catered to my every wish even though it was like you weren't all there. After you left the parlor that day I realized that you were upset, but I was worried." She trails off and although he is usually adamant in his desire to ignore that part of his life he feels a strange urge to know what exactly had been going through her head that day.

"You thought I was bleeding." he finishes for her.

"Exactly, especially after my mother told me not to bother you."

"That's when you decided to disobey her." He smiles slightly at this display of childish logic. Sharon had always been an imaginative child and this display matches so perfectly with his recollections of her at that age that it forces a larger smile to the surface.

"I reasoned that it was worth it. I had to see for myself." She sighs at that and tears her gaze away from him, instead it rests on the cover of the book she had retrieved as she runs her fingers along the smooth cover.

"But it did work, you know." she murmurs as she draws an invisible pattern on the worn leather of her book.

"How so?" he asks and without even noticing it his voice has become quieter as well.

"You opened up. You smiled more." Her gaze was on him once again. "You began acting like Break." He chuckles lightly at that.

"Much to most people's displeasure, I can only imagine." she smiles at his joke.

"I was thrilled." she tells him. He knows there's more she wants to say and so he says nothing as he waits for her to find her words. But she doesn't seem to be able to verbalize them, so she just sends another smile his way, although this time it's slightly tainted by disappointment.

"I never did hear that song again." he says to pull her out of her thoughts.

"Of course not, how could I possibly play that song again after knowing that it had such a profound effect on you?"

"Children don't always tend to remember those kinds of things for very long." He says as means of an explanation. "Besides, you were so proud to have learned it, I've often wondered why you never played it for anyone else." he shrugged.

"Honestly, Break. You act as if you had no idea how much I cared for you as a child." she sighs and looks away from him and he knows that there is a second, unsaid part to her statement. The one that says how much more she cares for him now as an adult. And even though this is a topic that shouldn't be freed even when masked by mere implications it is a topic that has been bothering him for far too long; and the way she has been acting throughout the conversation is enough to let him know that it had been bothering her as well and so he decides to allow it to continue.

"I do know." he can tell that she's somewhat startled that he's willing to continue the conversation. Her head snaps back towards him. He's leaning back in his chair and he is not smiling, he's serious and therefore far easier to read although he sometimes thinks that she can read him no matter what. "But I've never thought that any good could come of it."

The look of surprise lingers on her face for a while longer but is washed away as she smiles yet again, far brighter than any other smile she has sent his way in the whole evening. However, she doesn't seem content with just a smile and is once again stepping closer to him.

Her hands are on his face once again, she's cupping his cheeks. Break remembers that she used to do that all the time when she was young. She had only to do that while staring up at him with that childish expression of utmost adoration and he was hers to do with as she wished. Funny how things should be so similar now, even though her hands were no longer quite so small, her face no longer quite so childish as it hovers over him and her adoration is no longer quite so innocent. But then again, neither is his.

He swallows hard, compulsively, while trying to figure out just how far his lady will be willing to take her actions. He stares up at her through his white bangs and his eyebrows arch as she leans in. Just when her lips are almost on his he's once again surprised when she deviates her course so that her lips ghost against his ear. He can imagine the impish smile that is adorning her face perfectly well.

"What comes from this depends entirely on us." she whispers in his ear. She plants a kiss on his cheek quickly and immediately puts distance between them once again, giggling at the stunned look on his face. She looks more carefree than he has seen her in a very, very long time as she picks her book up from the table and leaves the room.

Break remains rooted to the spot, stunned at his mistress's bold actions and it is only because of his deeply implanted role as her protector that he still manages to somehow know by the sound of her dress's material dragging on the floor and the opening and closing of her door that she has gone to her room to retire for the night.

Break sighs as a little half-smile steals its way onto his face. There was no way for him to deny that that woman had bested him. She had robbed him of what little self-control he had and had managed to tease him while doing so to boot. He finally shakes his head at the thought and gets up to take care of his duties. While doing so he reminisces and comes to one firm conclusion.

He had always been hers to do with as she wished.

_**AN:/** I started this one-shot originally about six months ago and have been working on and off on it since then and there are still a ton of things I'd like to continue working on but I figured I'd post it and see what you guys thought. Also, for those of you who are reading "The Wager" here's your explanation as to how they got together. I'm actually really fond of this story and would like to make it even better so if someone has some constructive criticism to share, it is more than welcome._


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